Why All Age Worship? Session 1

So as promised in my last post here is my write up of the first session from the childrens conference run by Blackburn Diocese this February.  I will post up the others over the next 4 mondays so as not to give you too much to read all at once :P

Session 1 - Nick Harding – Why All Age Worship

tl;dr version:

• ·         All Age Worship as a term doesn’t work anymore as it has been corrupted – usually to mean for children and adults put up with it.

• ·         It should be ‘relationship building’ church, based around building a relationship together as a community between generations whilst also building a community with God

• ·         Most people are kinaesthetic learners and the service should reflect that

• ·         It is difficult and challenging to run, and for some people to attend – but it is about making the scripture and worship relevant to all generations – not just those who ascribe to the ‘club’ that church has descended into.

A simple question?

Nick is the children’s ministry advisor for Nottingham and has worked on trying to perfect all age worship for as long as he can remember.  The key thing he said to remember is that unfortunately it won’t ever be able to appeal to everyone’s tastes.  We can never get it perfect, but God’s Grace can help guide us to meet the needs of as many as possible.  Part of the issue lies in its name:

If you call it a ‘Family’ service it’s too vague – There are at least 164 different definitions of family, it’s no longer 2.4 kids a mum and a dad, so already that is alienating.

‘All Age’ services – sadly the term All Age has been morphed to mean ‘for children’ or ‘for adults but we’ll tolerate children’ it is often not pitched at the right level to include both.

‘Intergenerational’ service – is possibly closer but it is too long a word to use and makes you appear stuffy.

The closest thing is ‘Relationship church’ – it’s about building relationships between people and God.  Not everything done is always perfect for you, it needs to be about building a relationship.  The only time you don’t need to worry about relationships and do everything you want to do is if you are a single person living on your own with no friends – which is quite sad really.  However, in a ‘traditional family’ home you have 4 people living who all have different tastes in music, entertainment and food.  Each person learns to tolerate the choices of the others to maintain a healthy, happy relationships. You can separate from it but then you will be on your own as above.

The same is true in a church.  If members of the MU refuse to go to the service tell them that they are depriving everyone of their experience and their presence.  If young families aren’t attending a service then it’s the same, they are depriving everyone else of their presence.  In an All Age setting everyone is welcome and everyone is valued.

Aims of AAW:

·         Faith Development – it’s not a sing along concert, not entertainment – but engagement.

·         Welcome and Value – helpers not just saying hello and leaving people to it.

·         Walking into a church for some people is the same as if we walked into a gambling shop.  As you enter there are random bits of paper, books and screens dotted about but you have no idea how to go about placing a bet and you’d have to go ask for help.  People get the exact same feeling in churches but there is often no-one to ask for that help.

·         Awe, wonder and fun – Jesus said that unless you come as like a child you will not know the kingdom of God. We need to be inspiring these senses throughout our services.

·         Worship words – Liturgy can hold a service back but there are certain concepts and certain phrases that are crucial to being a Christian and they should be learnt.  Package them correctly and focus on the meaning rather than just saying them.

·         Intergenerational – as above

·         Relationships – as above

Too often people view their church service as their own ‘club.’  They like things the way they are, where they feel special and it has nothing to do with engaging with Scripture critically and getting to know God.  They are happy to sit and be lectured but nothing goes in and they forget all about it until next Sunday morning, when they can meet up with their friends and gossip about the week past again.  They are vehemently anti-change because that would disrupt their club and will often say they are going to leave if anything’s different – though most of the time they don’t as then they would no longer be part of their club anymore.  From this the idea of Niche ministry has sprung – you have different services for different people and you keep them the same as they have always been and present no challenge.  Now whilst this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as for some they are genuinely meeting Christ that way niche ministry in niche pockets doesn’t bring the whole family together. The creed states that we’re united.  How can we unite?

When we say we want a ‘Family Atmosphere’ we’re not talking about parents and kids, we’re talking about the whole Church family.  It’s creating a safe place for worship for ANYBODY, where they can learn to enjoy/accept new methods of worship.

What should be thought about when planning AAW?

• ·         Keep it simple! – Traditionally Christians are very verbose, remember the average reading age of the country is 9.  If they don’t get it first time they won’t necessarily come back for a second.
• ·         Provide opportunities for ministry – encourage people to read, do prayers who wouldn’t ordinarily come forward, make it something for the whole church to be involved in.
• ·         Opportunities for church growth – people want their ‘club’ not actual growth, growth means change and new people to talk to and they don’t want that!  AAW should actively encourage growth.
• ·         Provide a ‘bridge’ for the community – be an easy starting point for understanding the Christian faith as well as bringing the disparate ‘communities’ within a church together in communal worship.
• ·         Help parents fulfil their responsibilities – Proverbs 22:6 sums it up nicely ‘Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.’
• ·         Learning from each other – older generations have a wealth of knowledge and insight to share, but who can honestly say they have never heard a profound insight from the mouth of a child?
• ·         Be a prophetic witness to intergenerationalism

o   Acts 2:42-47 talks of the Fellowship of believers – it never says they were all adults in fact it’s most likely that children and adults worshipped and learnt together.

o   65% of media coverage about young people is negative and most young people think older people are miserable.  This barrier needs breaking down so we can be one in Christ’s body.

It’s not enough to say ‘Children are welcome here’. This belonging needs to be demonstrated through the policies and practices of the community. Forming relationships with children is the responsibility of all members of the community, not just those who work with them in educational programmes.

What do we communicate about our sense of community when children and teens are not included in corporate worship services?

 Ivy Beckwith, 2004

The main argument for not having AAW is that we provide Sunday school for children to learn about God in a way that’s suitable for them, so that adults can learn in a different way more suited for themselves.  This is flawed in 2 ways:

1.       1) Sunday school was created to teach children how to read and write.  Then they went into church to worship.  Or they went to church first then went to an afternoon lesson.  It was never intended as a separation for worship.  That came after state schools started being made and those in charge of Sunday schools were left wondering what to do, so decided to start teaching about God and scripture.  It slowly lost its original purpose and became a convenient way to keep the often noisy/easily distracted children out of the serious, solemn service.

2.       2) Adults don’t learn any differently from children!  75% of the population learn more through doing than reading or hearing about something.  In Sunday school we address this with a range of activities – is it addressed in your church services?  Now granted when people think of an AAW service they think of kiddy hymns like ‘Mr cow’ (transgender animals?!) but it shouldn’t be childish it should instead be childlike.  Capturing awe, wonder and fun in a way accessible to all. 

a.       For example, when looking at Genesis and creation get people involved in an interactive prayer:

‘You are the creator and we are thankful’

For you have everyone point to the sky, for creator have people mime the thing they are most creative with – it could be writing, drawing, modelling, dancing. For we gesture round the room and thankful bow.

Nick suggested that we read ‘Rooted in the Church’ a new report from Nov16 on how to keep children and teenagers in church.

The key message to take away is:

‘Why should we have to be together?’ should instead be ‘Why do we have to be apart?’

With me busily jotting it down there!